Shortly after Microsoft announced that it was raising the prices of the Xbox Series X and S for the third time this generation, a small trend emerged on our technology news feed. A plethora of stories appeared encouraging readers to purchase an Xbox console before the price increase went into effect on August 1. Combine this time frame with the allure of Prime Day deals active on Xbox consoles, and the message from these articles is clear: The best and most financially responsible time to buy an Xbox is right now, so do it.
Allow me to play devil’s advocate.
Although it often makes sense to plan purchases around known price increases, this is a foolish time to buy an Xbox. Yes, even with the discounted offers on the Xbox Series S for $350 and the Xbox Series X for $573 – hell, especially at these prices. In 2020, the Xbox Series S was launched for $300 and the Xbox Series Over the past few years, I’ve personally purchased a Series These consoles are now in their sixth year, and typically around this time in a generation, hardware prices will be dropping and we’ll be getting cool colors and bundles. Today’s discounted Xbox prices are obscene for a console entering its sixth year.
It’s worth noting that today’s market is uniquely cluttered, with memory and storage shortages driving up hardware prices in the tech industry. However, Microsoft is the main part of the problem here. The company is compounding its RAM shortage with massive investments in AI data centers, and its feigned ignorance about rising Xbox console prices is ridiculous.
Corporate shenanigans aside, this is simply not a good time to buy into the Xbox ecosystem. You could say there’s never really been a worse time. Microsoft is in disarray after years of layoffs and studio closures, declining console profits and executive-level changes at the Xbox business in 2026. This month, news broke that Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games are in imminent danger of closure, while new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty set the stage for more layoffs in July.
On the software side, Xbox doesn’t have a ton of exclusive games, as its first-party titles are widely available on PC. Its recent hits like Accepted, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle And keeper All of these are available on Steam, and Xbox is legally obligated to distribute its biggest first-party franchises (i.e., Call of Duty) across all platforms. That doesn’t mean there’s a push to bring its games to PlayStation and Switch, no matter how short-term that may be. One of Microsoft’s loudest marketing points is the fact that its games will work on later consoles and eventually come to PC, and even though they’re not saying it out loud now, the company is a leader in platform-agnostic cloud play. When everything is Xbox and Xbox games are available anywhere, you really don’t need an Xbox at all.
There’s no reason to rush out right now and buy a six-year-old gaming console at a higher price than its launch price, just because it’s going to get even more expensive soon. If you didn’t need an Xbox before now, chances are, you still don’t need it. It may be rich from a consumer tech blog, but there’s no real-world accomplishment to collecting every piece of contemporary gaming hardware — the closest we get is clout, but the returns on social media likes and comments are hollow and diminishing. Unlike Xbox prices, which have been steadily rising. The real smart move is to wait until the next generation comes out – which is obviously very soon – and either pick that up or get a series console, which will be priced to spare later.
This is nothing against media outlets that have run stories encouraging people to take advantage of Prime Day Xbox console prices. In truth, there is a very small market for this advice and it’s worth it to show these six guys where the best deals are at the moment. But as advice for general audiences it is useless.
Plus, aren’t you saving up for a Steam Machine right now?
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